You’ve heard all the great things about it, but what if you suck at meditation?
This could be you…
You’ve heard all the great things about meditation, but what if you suck at meditation?…
I’ve created a daily meditation habit, and I use it to help me with my business, my relationships, just about everything in my life! In fact, I think it’s THE key factor for me that helps me create my income flow and create my business every day!
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I often ask others if they have a meditation practice, and here’s the most common answer I get:
”I’d like to meditate, but I suck at meditation.”
“I just find it too hard to meditate on a regular basis.”
“I like to meditate but I just can’t find the time.”
“Meditation is just too hard to do. I can’t get into that space.”
“It’d like to, but it’s impossible to concentrate.”
Do any of those ring a bell with you?
Meditation is one of the core 4 exercises I do every single day. Can you live without it? Sure!
But I swear to you, if you learn to live with it, your life will become so much easier, more peaceful, and more focused. Deepak Chopra printed up with a list of 99 benefits of meditation last week. It really can be extremely powerful.
It’s like the magic pill for life.
Except this is one pill you need to engage first. It can’t be done for you. It can’t be done TO you. It’s something you need to completely embrace all by yourself.
Here are some of the reasons people think they suck at meditation:
– You have an unrealistic expectations of what meditation is.
– You’re trying too hard to relax.
– You don’t have a system to know what to do when your mind wanders.
– You don’t know where to start.
I’d like to address each of those issues:
What is mediation exactly? It’s the process of coming to right here, right now (think Eckart Tolle’s book The Power of Now) and allowing your thoughts to be present without judgement. Whew, many words to say, stop thinking and stop analyzing and start observing what’s happening inside your body and inside your mind.s
Stop thinking a huge beam of light will break through the clouds in the sky and beam you up to peace and tranquility.
Meditation is a process. Stop trying to control it!
BE AWARE.
JUST BE.
And that leads me to one of the next major problems, trying to force yourself to relax. That’s almost as bad as when people try to tell you to calm down when all you want to do is scream! Just makes things worse. Stop trying so hard! Just relax! No just kidding. Try just to relax some muscles. The brain can and will follow. One of the major techniques I use is to observe the body and ask for each body part to relax starting at the top of the head and moving down to the feet. Your brain usually follows, but first turn off the muscles and stop them from engaging.
What about a system? Do you need books, mantras pillows, an altar? No, you don’t actually need anything other than yourself, but if you’d like to create a habit of meditating, many of those tools can help. Notice that I called them tools. That’s exactly what they are tools to help you engage or disengage parts of your body so that your brain can tune into it’s awareness of everything happening inside you and what’s happening all around you.
What if you don’t have any clue where to start?
Here’s my favorite technique for newbies and people who have trouble making this a regular habit: (This technique was confirmed by Geshe Sonam, a tibetan monk who visited the Vortex Healing Centre a few weeks ago.)
Practice sitting for only 5 minutes at the same time every day and do nothing but bring your attention to your breath. Don’t force it. Just notice it. Be aware of it. When your mind begins to wander about what’s on for dinner or what else you need to do today, just bring your focus and awareness back to the breath.
Rinse and repeat.
Make this a habit until you find that you really look forward to this time to yourself. This time that belongs to no one but you. If you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up. Just start over again. One day at a time.
You can actually do this “practice” of meditation, while walking, jogging, doing qigong, taichi, swimming, or even in the shower. It’s all about where your awareness is. Where your mind is.
I hope that makes sense. No more need to beat yourself up because you suck at meditation!
I would love to hear how you’re doing with this.
I’m thinking of starting a 21 day challenge to meditate every day. Let me know if something like this might interest you.
ps. Here’s a link to a guided meditation I did for the Vortex Healing Centre
